Real-Life Math -- Solution
Finding the average of the intensity of earthquakes is not nearly
as difficult as some of the problems that you need to solve during an average
day at work, but it is a skill that you'll use often. Statistics are
part of everything that you do.
The averages that you're determining
today have their usefulness. For someone who is not trained as a seismologist,
these averages can give them a general picture of the damage that an earthquake
can do.
So to find the average intensity of the earthquake, you need
to first add all of the intensity measurements together.
Earthquake
= 6.1 + 5.4 + 4.7 + 4.8 + 6.4 + 3.9 + 5.1 + 3.7
Earthquake = 40.1
Now
divide the sum of those measurements by the number of measurements that were
taken:
40.1 / 8 = 5.0125
Since earthquakes
are usually measured to the 10th, you'll need to round to the nearest
10th. In this case, 0.0125 will round down, giving you an average earthquake
intensity of 5.0.
Now, you'll need to do the same for each of
the first 2 aftershocks, since you plan to use those in your illustrations
as well.
Aftershock 1 = 4.7 + 4.9 + 3.6 + 3.8 + 5.9 + 2.8
+ 4.3 + 3.1
Aftershock 1 = 33.1
33.1
/ 8 = 4.1375
The average intensity of the first aftershock
is 4.1.
Finally, add all of the measurements for the second aftershock:
Aftershock
2 = 3.9 + 4.1 + 2.1 + 3.0 + 5.1 + 2.2 + 2.9 + 2.6
Aftershock 2
= 25.9
25.9 / 8 = 3.2375
The
second aftershock averages 3.2.
The average intensity of an earthquake
and the first 2 aftershocks in California are 5.0, 4.1, and 3.2. Now you can
use these numbers to illustrate the average amount of damage that earthquakes
have done.